High School Football Preview: Monty Tech returns solid nucleus eager to translate experience into success

By Michael J. LeClairSports Correspondent

Wednesday

Sep 11, 2019 at 6:30 PM

FITCHBURG — It’s back to work for the Monty Tech football team.

The Bulldogs, under fourth-year head coach Anthony Secino, have returned to the gridiron looking to improve on a disappointing 2018 season.

“Things haven’t been going too bad. We’ve been up and down during the preseason. We still have some work to do, some things to clean up but I like a lot of the things I’ve seen,” said Secino. “We have an older group this year with a lot of upperclassmen.”

Monty Tech is coming off a 3-8 campaign a year ago. The season ended on a sour note on Thanksgiving eve in Westford when the Bulldogs dropped an 18-13 decision to the Vikings of Nashoba Valley Tech.

“Last year was a tough season but we’re trying our best to move on from it,” said Secino. “We got a lot of guys back from that team last year and they are determined to try and improve on things.”

Since taking over the program from Matt Sallila prior to the 2016 season, the wins have been hard to come by for Secino and the Bulldogs who are a combined 10-33 over the past three years. Monty Tech is hoping it can take the first steps towards turning that record around this fall. The Bulldogs should be ready for Friday night’s opener against Keefe Tech after scrimmaging against Franklin County Tech, Oakmont and Lunenburg during the preseason.

“We’ve got three scrimmages under our belts so that helps us,” said Secino. “It gives us a chance to see how they respond in a game situation and what things we need to work on and clean up before our season opener. We did some real good things in each one so that was definitely a positive.”

The Bulldogs are certainly upperclassmen heavy with 15 juniors and 15 seniors on the 2019 roster. According to Secino, the Bulldogs lost two offensive starters — including workhorse running back Damatrius Sayarath — and three defensive starters to graduation from last year’s team, so the nucleus of the 2018 Bulldogs is back.

“All these kids have played considerable minutes so we’re hoping that translates into success this season,” said Secino. “They want to win and to be successful so I’m happy about that.

“We’re excited to see what this team can do this year,” Secino added. “We have a lot of guys that have gained some big time experience over the last couple years and as long as we can stay healthy I like the direction we’re headed.”

Monty Tech will be led by captains Mateo Serrano, Chad Brouillet and Gabriel Baczewski. All are seniors and will provide leadership to the youngsters around them. Serrano and Brouillet will anchor the backfield while Baczewski will be a mainstay up front on both the offensive and defensive lines.

On the offensive side of the football, it starts with junior quarterback TJ Farr. Behind him, the opposition will get a steady diet of the ground game courtesy of Serrano, Isaiah Ortiz-DaSilva, Cencier Mills and Brouillet.

At the wide receiver position, Secino and company will look to Dakari Eady and Zack Perry-Meuer, both returning players from a year ago.

“We are confident in the group that we have. With so many seniors and juniors we will be relying on them to provide leadership,” said Secino. “That’s what we want our culture to be with a senior heavy group. Anybody can coach but its talent and effort that gets the job done.”

As for the other side of the ball, Secino and his staff are firm believers in ironman football and as such the Monty Tech defense will feature many of the same names when the opposition has the pigskin.

“Much like on the offensive side, we are a work in progress on the defense as well,” said Secino. “We return a solid group of linebackers and a pretty good secondary group. We feel confident with that group out there.”

The Bulldogs secondary will include Eady, Mills and Perry-Meuer. Also in the mix to earn playing time in the defensive backfield is Griffin Miller. Lining up at outside linebacker will be Ortiz-Dasilva and Brouillet, while Baczewski and Jake Marks will start at inside linebacker.

The defensive line, responsible for swallowing up running backs and putting pressure on the quarterback, will look similar to the offensive line as Secino and his staff plan to move around Baczewski, Stewart, Vaillancourt, Carrion, Brown and Sandborn among others.

“With the preseason being an extra week this year we’ve had some time to work on a few extra things and to clean up some of the areas we weren’t happy with,” said Secino. “The kids have responded well. They’re excited, as is the coaching staff, for Friday night.”

The Purple and Gold will play six games at home this fall, including a contest with nearby rival Murdock on October 25. Monty Tech will also host Keefe Tech, Assabet Valley Tech, Bay Path, and Abby Kelley before wrapping up the season by welcoming Nashoba Tech on Thanksgiving Eve. Friday, November 8 and Friday, November 15 are potential playoff dates and the Bulldogs’ opponents for those two weeks will be announced during the season.

“One of our main goals this season will be to try and get off to a fast start,” said Secino, whose coaching staff includes Tim Roy, Dan Roy, Kevin Anderson, George Hutchinson and Eric Johnson. “That definitely won’t be an easy thing to do because we play a very difficult schedule yet again but we’ve talked to the guys about wanting to open the season strong and try to maintain that mentality throughout the course of the season. We’re going to take things day by day and see where it takes us.”

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